Canada Post International suspension of service (March 19)

[ypdc_dennis]

Canada Post is not accepting mail and parcels for these countries due to a temporary service disruption. Date posted: March 19, 2020

 https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/service-alerts.page

ALBANIA
ARGENTINA
AUSTRIA
BOSNIA/HERZEGOV
BRUNEI
CAYMAN ISLANDS
CHILE
COLOMBIA
CYPRUS
DENMARK
DJIBOUTI
ECUADOR
ESTONIA
FRENCH POLYNESIA
INDIA
KAZAKHSTAN
KUWAIT
LATVIA
LEBANON
LIBYA
MACEDONIA
MALDIVES
MALTA
MOLDOVA
NORWAY
PANAMA
PERU
PHILIPPINES
POLAND
RUSSIA
SAUDI ARABIA
SERBIA
SOUTH AFRICA
SPAIN
TUNISIA
TURKEY
UKRAINE

-..-

[twlj53]

I received parcels from Denmark, Finland and Norway today, therefore I am assuming these restrictions from Canada Post only refer to Canada Posts outgoing mail and not their incoming mail. Any thoughts ?

Bill

[pjcdn2005]

I haven't seen a notice regarding incoming international mail.  If those postal systems are very slow or closed down, perhaps your parcels left those countries before that happened??

[zee-chan]

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@retroman_studios wrote:

This new generation (specifically Millennial & Above) have it so easy.

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I wish it's as easy as you made it sound like. The housing price is crazy but basic salary isn't catching up to the raising cost of living. The pandemic is as big as it is now also because air travel and cruise ship travel is soooo much cheaper compared to 50+ years ago. Traveling being so affordable made containing the virus much more difficult. 

If this virus happened 50 years ago, it would have been much better controlled; the Chinese citizens were still very poor back then and most of them won't be able to afford travelling, for economical reason alone the virus would have been contained within China and perhaps Hong Kong (as back in those days a lot of illegal immigrants went from China to Hong Kong to escape from the communist government).

History lesson aside, I don't think it's fair to say one generation has it easier than the others. True that we have easier access to food, electricity, clean water compared to 50 years ago, but there a different sets of difficulty we have to face now. Take health care for example... medicine has evolved so much compared to 50 years and that's part of the reason why it's having so much trouble now; we can do so much more, and we try to save everybody. Life expectancy is longer, which means more people relying on the medical system. Italy has to choose between saving one patient and not the other partly for this reason. Whereas 50 years ago, you wouldn't get that many patients....... because some of them would have died before they reach that high risk age, or that medicine back then might not even attempt saving some of them.

Sorry for going off topic. 

[apmtrade]

Thanks for the  information. Due to that, I just put my Store on vacation.

[a52split]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

@cumos55 

Mail for me goes Calgary to Richmond and on to LAX for processing. 

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This is not how the mail goes.  From Richmond it goes to SF.  All international mail arriving from the far east, including western Canada, enters through the international mail receiving depot in SF.

Even if it can't go by air and CP decides to truck it, the trucks go straight to SF.

The one thing I don't know is how much CP relies on commercial flights to deliver their mail to SF.  I just sent a question to a friend who knows the inner workings of the PO.  

I'd like to point out that cargo planes are not affected by any air travel restrictions.

A package I sent on the 20th arrived at it's destination in OR on the 25th, so there was no ground transport involved.

[mindbender3]

Although I understand why this is happening it is super frustrating that eBay has done ZIP to prevent purchases of items from buyers in these countries.  Are we supposed to personally monitor and edit our "ship to" countries on a daily basis and edit all of our listings?  Ridiculous.  In the meantime if a buyer from one of these countries purchases an item we have to go through the entire process of refunding the customer; apologizing; asking eBay for a fee refund and then relist the item and hope to hell the buyer doesn't leave negative feedback because they can!

Ebay, MAKE THIS EASIER FOR SELLERS and code listings so that countries where they have suspended international shipping cannot purchase our items.

[mrdutch1001]

One would have to consider what percentage of sales are International but wouldn't it be easier to just restrict your shipping locations to North America for the short term?

[mindbender3]

Ummm, yeah, this does not work for me either.  There has to be another way.   This is a huge burden to sellers when there must be an easier solution such as preventing known countries in suspended delivery from making purchases??

[recped]

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@cumos55 wrote:

Something new mentioned on CNN....

All flights grounded in the US.

If this happens then it is goodbye to all airmail delivery to the US.

The critical wording is ... If it happens.....  looks to be ... just a thought... so far....

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ALL US domestic mail (first class/priority or equivalent) is handled by FedEx and moves on FedEx cargo planes. Passenger service MIGHT be reduced or closed but this would not affect cargo flights. As long as Canada Post can get stuff to the US there should be no major problems.

Expedited USA which is technically a ground service is handled within the USA as part of the Air Mail stream.

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

Note you still pay a store fee for Vacation Mode.

It would be nice to see an implementation to Pause a store subscription and have the duration of the Pause then added to the end of the contractual term?

[reallynicestamps]

@zee-chan 

Umm-- 50 years ago was 1970,  not exactly the middle ages. At least in Canada, China was still in the throes of the Cultural Revolution as the Maoists tried to force the population into the idealized agrarian society they felt was pure.

Now if you go back to 1936, when my eldest sister was born prematurely at 3.5 lbs... the maternity home sent them home with instructions to wrap her in cotton wool, bathe her in olive oil, keep her close to the fire, and pray. (She's a grandmother  six times over but not yet a great-gran.)

[reallynicestamps]

@mrdutch1001 

That probably would work for anyone without a Store-- and listing less than their 50 Free a month.

It would take a few minutes to do a Bulk Revision and end all overseas shipping for the duration. Or if you have less than 25 do them one at a time.

For Store subscribers, with more than 100 , and often more than 1000 listings, the work is greater.  Possible but a burden.

I just sent a Message to a French customer about the cost of shipping a heavy book, but noted that with the pandemic closures, he should check to see if LaPoste was accepting parcels from Canada Post.  Overseas sales have never been a big part of my sales perhaps 5%.

[zee-chan]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

@zee-chan 

Umm-- 50 years ago was 1970,  not exactly the middle ages. At least in Canada, China was still in the throes of the Cultural Revolution as the Maoists tried to force the population into the idealized agrarian society they felt was pure.

Now if you go back to 1936, when my eldest sister was born prematurely at 3.5 lbs... the maternity home sent them home with instructions to wrap her in cotton wool, bathe her in olive oil, keep her close to the fire, and pray. (She's a grandmother  six times over but not yet a great-gran.)

---

I'm not saying 50 years ago was the middle ages; I was specifically saying that the Chinese people were relatively more poor compared to in the 90's. Most of them can't afford international travel in the 70's so the virus wouldn't have spread like crazy like now if this happened 50 years ago. 

3.5 lbs, that's really small for someone born at 1936! Curious how old by gestational age? If they really did just sent her home with those instructions, it's a miracle that she lived for so long. 

[reallynicestamps]

She was a preemie, born three days before my parents got married. 

Seriously, she was perhaps 6.5 months gestational age. Dad was an electrician and mum was a seamstress, so we were poor. No NHS in those days.

And the Cultural Revolution did not help the people in any way.  The students were distracted from their studies, the peasants were even more oppressed, any sign of success was punished. Bad times. Have you read Jan Wong's "Red China Blues" about her own participation in the Cultural Revolution?

[maximus7001]

After editing a bunch of countries out of the ship to list there has been a good development last night. The march 30 version of the suspended countries got smaller and our frequent buyer countries that were shut of as recently as march 27 are not on the list anymore as of right now. Like Belgium ,Denmark, Finland, LUXEMBOURG, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. These countries account for 30% of our sales.

We had one come back from Spain today (march 30) that was mailed march 16. Under the sticker it says in red: resume service, postage paid but we cant show that because it also has the buyers name and address.

march 30 version from CP:

Red alert: Canada Post is not accepting mail and parcels for these countries due to a temporary service disruption.

Date posted: March 30, 2020

AFGHANISTAN
ALBANIA
ALGERIA
ANGOLA
ANGUILLA
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
ARGENTINA
ARMENIA
ARUBA
ASCENSION
AUSTRIA
AZERBAIJAN
BAHRAIN
BELIZE
BENIN
BERMUDA
BHUTAN
BOLIVIA
BOSNIA/HERZEGOV
BOTSWANA
BRAZIL
BRUNEI
BURKINA FASO
BURUNDI
CAMBODIA
CAMEROON
CAPE VERDE
CAYMAN ISLANDS
CENTRAL AFR REP
CHAD
CHILE
COLOMBIA
COMOROS
CONGO
CONGO, DEM REP
COOK ISLANDS
CUBA
CYPRUS
DJIBOUTI
DOMINICA
DOMINICAN REP
DUTCH CARIBBEAN
ECUADOR
EGYPT
EL SALVADOR
EQUAT GUINEA
ERITREA
ESTONIA
FALKLAND ISLANDS
FAROE ISLANDS
FR POLYNESIA
FRENCH GUIANA
GABON
GAMBIA
GEORGIA
GHANA
GIBRALTAR
GREENLAND
GRENADA
GUADELOUPE
GUINEA
GUINEA-BISSAU
GUYANA
HAITI
HONDURAS
INDIA
IRAN
IRAQ
ISRAEL
IVORY COAST
KAZAKHSTAN
KENYA
KIRIBATI
KOREA NORTH DEM REP
KOSOVO
KUWAIT
KYRGYZSTAN
LAO
LATVIA
LEBANON
LESOTHO
LIBERIA
LIBYA
LIECHTENSTEIN
MACEDONIA
MADAGASCAR
MALAWI
MALAYSIA
MALDIVES
MALI
MALTA
MARTINIQUE
MAURITANIA
MAURITIUS
MAYOTTE
MOLDOVA, REPUBLIC
MONACO
MONGOLIA
MONTENEGRO
MONTSERRAT
MOROCCO
MOZAMBIQUE
MYANMAR
NAMIBIA
NAURU
NEPAL
NEW CALEDONIA
NICARAGUA
NIGER
NIGERIA
NIGERIA
NIUE
OMAN
PANAMA
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
PARAGUAY
PERU
PHILIPPINES
PITCAIRN
QATAR
REUNION
RUSSIA
RWANDA
SAINT HELENA
SAINT KITTS & NEVIS
SAINT LUCIA
SAINT MAARTEN
SAMOA
SAO TOME PRINCIPE
SAUDI ARABIA
SENEGAL
SEYCHELLES
SIERRA LEONE
SOLOMON IS
SOUTH AFRICA
SOUTH AFRICA
SRI LANKA
ST VINCENT & GRENADINES
SUDAN
SURINAME
SWAZILAND
TAJIKISTAN
TANZANIA
TIMOR-LESTE
TOGO
TOKELAU
TONGA
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
TRISTAN DA CUNH
TUNISIA
TURKEY
TURKMENISTAN
TURKS & CAICOS
TUVALU
UGANDA
UKRAINE
UNITED ARAB EMR
URUGUAY
UZBEKISTAN
VANUATU
VENEZUELA
VIRGIN ISLANDS-BR
YEMEN
ZIMBABWE

[zee-chan]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

She was a preemie, born three days before my parents got married. 

Seriously, she was perhaps 6.5 months gestational age. Dad was an electrician and mum was a seamstress, so we were poor. No NHS in those days.

And the Cultural Revolution did not help the people in any way.  The students were distracted from their studies, the peasants were even more oppressed, any sign of success was punished. Bad times. Have you read Jan Wong's "Red China Blues" about her own participation in the Cultural Revolution?

---

6.5 months = 26 weeks... how is it possible for anyone born that early to survive without a ventilator back in the old days?! She was probably much older than that. 3.5 lbs is gigantic for a 26 weeks gestational age baby. According to neonatal growth chart (found on google), using 3.5 lbs as the mean weight, usually the baby would be 30 weeks. And if it's as you said, she went home with olive oil and lots of praying... she is probably at least 34 weeks and born on the very small side. Preemies are not capable of eating on their own until they are at least 34 weeks because of stages of brain development. 

And no I haven't heard of that book lol. 

[forester_studios]

Hi - Just wondering if the list has been updated since this post? Thanks.

[recped]

You can find the current list here:

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/service-alerts.page

[forester_studios]

Thank you! Much appreciated!